Over two centuries ago, Mary Shelley created a gruesome tale of the
horrific ramifications that result when man over steps his bounds and
manipulates nature. In her classic tale, Frankenstein, Shelley
weaves together the terrifying implications of a young scientist playing
God and creating life, only to be haunted for the duration of his life by
the monster of his own sordid creation. Reading Shelley in the context
of present technologically advanced times, her tale of monstrous creation
provides a very gruesome caution. For today, it is not merely a human
being the sciences are lusting blindly to bring to life, as was the
deranged quest of Victor Frankenstein, but rather to generate something
potentially even more dangerous and horrifying with implications that
could endanger the entire world and human population.

Few things are more powerful than the human mind or human intelligence.
This ability to think, learn and process complex thoughts has been the
driving force that has allowed for the immense growth of human culture
and society, without which it is doubtful we would have ever had the
capacity to evolve from our basic animal existence. As fantastic as this
quality may be, our intellectual growth has not always spawned ideas that
produce sound and safe results. Victor Frankenstein, although a
fictitious character, provides a superb example of the vast potentiality
of human intelligence and the morbid destruction that it can create. For
very real examples, one need only read the headlines of the newspaper to
find a multitude of malicious and perverse atrocities that occur each day
due to the human mind and "intelligence" gone haywire. This is why, in
light of today, with technology gaining greater and greater power, we
must really think about what we are doing when we are trying to give this
capacity of intelligence to machines. For the creation of Artificial
Intelligence could easily open a Pandora's box of monstrosities that
could very well haunt and control us, just as Victor did when he gave
life to his monster.

The idea of Artificial Intelligence began as a mere philosophical idea,
simply a puzzle that provided food for thought for curious minds. In the
1940's, however, with the invention of the first computers, the notion
then had the means to transcend simple abstract speculation and became a
rather alluring potential actuality and goal in the technological
community. It was not until the 1950's, however, that the link between
human intelligence and machines was really observed spawning a
technological boom that would precipitate to immense proportions,
entirely reshaping our daily lives. Today, "Researchers are creating
systems which can mimic human thought, understand speech, beat the best
human chess player, and countless other feats never before possible"
(The History of AI 1).
The rapid fervor to which the researchers latched on to the further
development of this infant technology, coincides eerily to that of the
intense desire Shelley portrayed in Victor as he literally emptied his
entire soul and being into his obsession of creating life. As Victor so
splendidly illustrates a quest of this sort and in this manner is
blinding and for this reason scarily dangerous. For just as Victor stood
dumbfounded and revolted when he looked upon his "success", we could very
well be left with the same awestruck horror when our intelligent machines
turn out to be monsters too and we are incapable to stop them and fall
entirely vulnerable to their control.

Over the last fifty years we have experienced this dream becoming a
reality and "smart" machines have been integrated into nearly ever facet
of our daily lives, already forming a relationship of potentially
hazardous dependence. We want our color TVs, P.C.s, and pocket planners
and bedazzled by what they have to offer we want more. The "smarter" the
machine, it seems, the less we as humans have to do. They make life
simple and naively we seem to maintain that we are master over this
immense power, when daily the role is shifting as we become more and more
attached to the perks technology seems to offer. Once again hauntingly
parallel to Shelley's Frankenstein, Victor's dependence on and
obsession with his creation only seemed to increase as he came closer to
completion. This dependence only further striped him of any rationality
as his sole focus was lost on that of his creation, no longer seeing the
cost he would truly have to pay for it.

The most horrifying ramification perhaps is that these machines that we
are so blindly giving "life" to not only think for themselves, but are
also indicating the ability to learn. This gives raise to a multitude of
potential disasters and questions, such as, "will machines learn that
being rich and successful is a good thing, then rage war against economic
powers andŠpeople?" (Applications 1). Just as the Frankenstein
monster learned and was thus a much greater and real threat to Victor,
one can hardly say it is worth the risk when this is in fact becoming a
terrifying reality. The recent film The Matrix centers on just
this potential horror. In the film, Artificial Intelligence has grown to
such an immense power that it actually has the capacity to take over the
human population, turning them into disillusioned batteries to fuel the
technology's sordid existence. The sickening potentiality this film has
to offer is enough to make one at least a little weary of what we are
really doing. Unfortunately, just as no one could stop Victor, it seems
there is little that will bring an end to the continuing advancements of
technology even in light of the multitude of potential horrors it could
very well bring to life.

"AI are like children that need to be taught to be kind, well mannered
and intelligent. If they are to make intelligent decisions they should
be wise" (Applications 1). The problem clearly arises; as to who
is to be the parent of these potentially dangerous "children" who will
have the ability to accomplish feats that human beings are not even
capable of. Can we even say we know how to raise our own human children
when the acts of children seem to only be gaining more destruction and
violent rebellion? And further whom can we really trust to carry out
these lessons? One need only remember history to discover that humans
have manipulated power throughout time for personal and often malicious
motives. What are we to do to prevent these childish minds of AI from
being corrupted by those individuals who desire to manipulate them to
their own desires, especially when we are integrating AI into weapons
that could have the most disastrous effect upon the entire world if power
were to be placed in the wrong hands. Or what if the "AI children" simply
decide to rebel because they want to?

Clearly, the potential for disaster is very real when we are taking the
power of our minds and placing it into machines that have the ability to
act in ways that exceed our own abilities. We are blinded by the
seemingly beneficial qualities of this growing technology, naively
becoming more and more dependent upon this very powerful creation. One
need only remember the gruesome tale Shelley brought forth in
Frankenstein to realize the horrendous mistake we could very well
be making. Just as Victor realized too late that he had given life to a
true monster, our world could suffer the same fate as we watch our "AI
children" manifest into monsters that we no longer have control of.